Tag: Pat Tillman

This Memorial Day weekend, Truthdig commemorates the legacy of deceased U.S. infantryman Pat Tillman by republishing our most popular piece, “After Pat’s Birthday,” written by his brother, Kevin Tillman (pictured with his arm around Pat).

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: We revisit some of our favorite interviews from the past year. Topics include: war powers, banned books, the Koch brothers and the incredible journey of veteran turned pacifist Rory Fanning.

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: We revisit some of our favorite interviews from the past year. Topics include: war powers, banned books, the Koch brothers and the incredible journey of veteran-turned-pacifist Rory Fanning.

President Obama has asked Gen. Stanley McChrystal to oversee the administration’s new initiative to help military families. What a slap in the face to the nation’s highest-profile military family—that of Army Ranger Pat Tillman—on whom McChrystal heaped misery and disrespect.

Thanks to the Establishment’s truly spectacular mishandling of this case—will they never learn, you can live with screw-ups, never coverups?—Pat Tillman left the country of celebrity and entered the land of myth, innocently, even perhaps tragically.

Rolling Stone’s definitive piece on the “Runaway General” establishes the man in charge of the Afghanistan misadventure as an egotistical flake whose half-baked Afghan war-fighting strategy should never have been endorsed in the first place.

Four years after Pat Tillman’s death by friendly fire in Afghanistan, his mother, Mary Tillman, is still asking questions—primarily about the U.S. government’s initial cover-up of the details of Pat’s death and about how far up the chain of command the deception extended. Here, New York Times sports writer George Vecsey praises Mary Tillman and her new memoir, “Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman.”

Mary Tillman made a sharp and moving appearance Tuesday morning on the “Today” show to talk about her new book, “Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman,” about the friendly-fire death of her son, Pat, and the U.S. military’s subsequent cover-up in 2004.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a cameo appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday to testify about what he knew, and when, regarding the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman. Facing Reps. Henry Waxman, Dennis Kucinich and others, a fidgety Rumsfeld denied that there was a cover-up, denied that he played any part in mischaracterizing Tillman’s death, and explained the difference between an “error” and a “lie.”

In a hearing before a House committee Wednesday, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified he had not known the real circumstances of Pat Tillman’s death in April 2004 and that he would not characterize the Army’s handling of the friendly-fire case as a “cover-up.”

Defense Department documents handed over to the Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request raised the possibility that the “friendly-fire” death of soldier Pat Tillman, a former NFL player, was the result of an intentional act that amounted to a crime.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and his Republican committee colleague Rep. Tom Davis are putting pressure on the White House and the Defense Department to hand over records about the death of Pat Tillman. The administration has been keeping the documents secret, citing its executive confidentiality prerogative.

In honor of Memorial Day, Truthdig presents two of the most powerful pieces we’ve featured by two invaluable veteran voices—Kevin Tillman (pictured) and Ron Kovic—who remind us of the brutal human costs of war. (Click here to read Kovic’s article.)

On the 100th anniversary of John Wayne’s birth, falling as it does on Memorial Day weekend, Truthdig presents two pieces connecting the hype of the celluloid “war hero” who never fought to the hard human costs of war. It was the Duke’s deadly myth, after all, that would lead young men like Ron Kovic to sacrifice life and limb in needless wars.

Truthdig honors Mary Tillman this week, on behalf of all the mothers whose children have been lost or are risking their lives at war. Her brave search for the truth about the fate of her son and others sacrificed in the Iraq or Afghanistan war underscores the true significance of Mother’s Day.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will investigate the Pentagon’s handling of the death of Pat Tillman and the rescue of Jessica Lynch to determine “why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate administration officials have been held accountable.”

The military covered its ass on Monday, with a report on the investigation into the exploitation of Pat Tillman that stank of non-denial denials. After three years of lies and obfuscation, the Tillman family deserves better.

The Pentagon briefed the Tillman family Monday following dual investigations into the alleged criminality and cover-up in the aftermath of the fratricide of Pat Tillman. Here is the family’s response, in its entirety.

The military has concluded that the fratricide of Pat Tillman was not criminal and there was no broad cover-up, despite recommending action against officers who, as the AP reports, “passed along misleading and inaccurate information and delayed reporting their belief that Tillman was killed by his fellow soldiers.”

Last week’s leak that nine officers will be implicated in the cover-up of the circumstances of Pat Tillman’s death unleashed yet another wave of commentary and speculation about the nature of his patriotism and service. Stan Goff takes on one particularly ferocious vulture in order to defend Tillman’s memory.

The findings of an investigation into the cover-up of the circumstances of Pat Tillman’s death won’t be officially released until Monday, but details are leaking out. According to Defense Department officials, the report will recommend holding nine officers, including up to four generals, accountable.

Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat (left, above) was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin has written a powerful, must-read document.

With the Pentagon’s inspector general suggesting criminal negligence in the killing of former NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman, it is time to demand congressional hearings into the way the Bush administration cynically spun the story to serve its political purposes at the expense of the truth.